Champions of the Bronze Buzzard

Showdown in Stone Spider Cavern

Truly Gritty

12

MAR/13

Ruthie Greenfield has been waiting for the party to return from their battles in Kitsumura. She is the daughter of Jonas Greenfield, the corpse that was the star of a previous adventure to Boot Hill Cemetery.

Ruthie offers the party fifty gold to track down and get her father’s killer, a hired man named Jessup. After some investigation and a friendly conversation with Eric Viridian, Osrik learns that Jessup has fallen in with a notorious group of bandits lead by a master thief named Blondie. Hollis knows that Blondie is a dangerous operator, and his crew is not to be underestimated. Hollis also knows they pulled a major job against a caravan from the merchant’s guild, and negotiates a 10% commission on any recovered goods through Byron Redfoot and the thieves guild. Hollis also knows where the hideout is.

A full week’s worth of travel to the South, the party finds the caverns. Tuan turned Hollis invisible so he could scout the caves. A group of giant spiders attacked the party in the entryway in a surprisingly difficult battle that left Ol’ Grig scorched, and Osrik burned to death. Hrothgar held off three giant spiders without getting poisoned himself, but struggled to land a blow. The party found a winch and chain and holed up to regroup and plan their next move.

Hollis found Blondie and his gang in the main cavern. A desperate fight ensued, during which Fah De, Blondie’s crazy Drow girlfriend summoned her “babies” to attack the heroes. Blondie tried to cut a deal and save himself, but Finnan responded to his pleas with a ray of frost.

Osrik and Hrothgar managed to decode a letter written in Dwarvish silver runes they found on Blondie’s body. Hollis recovered a ring that marked Blondie as an elite thief. The party searched further for Jessup.

They found him, being eaten by Squishy, who turned out to be a gelatinous cube. Disregarding the potential consequences of offending the Gelatinous Cube Parliament, the party fought the cube, and rescued Jessup. Then Osrik killed him with a wrench. Hollis grabbed the fox fur cloak that Jessup stole from Jonas Greenfield.

The party found a treasure chest from the merchant caravan guarded by two statutes. After some investigation, the party determined that one demanded a sacrifice of blood and the other a sacrifice of money. Tuan spent five gold on one, while Osrik sawed off Fah De’s head for the other. The party grabbed the chest, and moved on to investigate the strange hole with the chain winch.

Dangling Hollis like bait, they discovered an Ogre that Blondie had been rumored to work with. Hollis and Sybil fought him bravely, while the rest of the party fired ranged attacks from the upper level. Sybil nearly drowned when the Ogre fell on her. Nobody found Blondie’s treasure. The party determined they had killed everything in the cave, and recovered the merchant’s goods, but thoughts were grim concerning the contents of Stratton’s letter and everyone returned to Westerfield.